Hey East Coast skiers, you want to feel really good about the snow conditions that you have access to on your mountains? Take a look at this video of Dorian Densmore skiing quite possibly the sketchiest snow I’ve ever seen someone ski.
This line is located on Cerro Plata, the highest mountain in the Cordón del Plata Range in Central Argentina. The video is taken about ¾ of the way down the face. According to the video description, Densmore started the descent around 5,800 meters (~19,000 feet), so this is some no joke snow conditions.
Dorian told us that this section is a small part of the lower heinous penitentes section from their first descent of Cerro Plata east. A full documentary on Dorian’s ascent and descent will be coming out soon.
If you’re wondering what the hell is going on with the snow, those are penitentes (penitents), spikes of compact snow that occur between 4,000 and 5,200 meters. They’re typically found in the snowfields and glaciers of the Santiago Andes, and were “first observed” by Charles Darwin in 1835. Multiple theories as to why they exist have spawned over the years, including that they’re caused by wind and avalanches. According to The Origin of Penitents, first published in 1954 in the Journal of Glaciology, penitents are caused by prolonged action of the sun (I’m not going to dig too deep into this concept, because I’ll probably mess up the explanation. I encourage you to read more here).
One commenter pointed out that it looks like he’s skiing on the “memory of snow”, which honestly makes the most sense to me. No matter what it is or what causes it, it looks super sketchy. He got down well enough to post the video, and that’s what matters the most.
Feel better now, east coast skiers? Would you rather ski some hard core ice, or ski this stuff? It’s not a hard question to answer. Put me on the ice.
Related: Northeast Snowmaking Push Begins
Image Credit: Dorian Densmore via Instagram